A culture of seeking
In ancient times if anybody spoke anything other than what the existing organised religion of that time preached, the first thing people said was, “kill”. Whether it was Socrates, Mansoor, Jesus, those seekers of truth, who never became well-known, many men and women have been killed thus. So in those parts of the world “realised beings” were wise enough to shut up and mind their own business rather than talking and getting killed.
More than two million women were burnt at the stake in Europe simply because they exhibited some quality which was considered a threat to the organised religion.
For example, Jesus did not do anything very revolutionary. He did not talk about demolishing the temple, replacing the gods or about a new religion. He only talked about taking business out of the temple. For that, the religious leaders of the time did such horrible things to him.
Five hundred years before Jesus, Gautama Buddha made fun of Hindu Gods. He contradicted and made fun of everything that the Hindus were saying, but nobody ever thought of throwing a stone at him, poisoning him or crucifying him. People called him for debate; they debated with him for months. When they failed in the debate, they became his monks. Because the pursuit was truth, people sat down and argued whether what they knew was true or what the other person was saying was the truth.
If his truth was more powerful than yours, you would become a part of him. If your truth was more powerful than his, then he would become a part of you. It was a very different kind of search — people were searching to know; they
were not just believing and
trying to prove that their belief was right.
In the Indian culture, we evolved a tradition where if anybody on the spiritual path held a different view, one could argue and debate with him. The question of killing did not arise. We established a system to deal with dissent. Because of this, spiritual processes evolved in so many different ways. At least at one time, the whole culture was spiritual.
The only objective for anybody who was born in this land and this culture was mukti. Your family, your business, and everything else was secondary.
Until a couple of generations ago, the primary goal for every man was ultimate well-being; immediate well-being was not considered a very big thing. Things have changes now. “M” now no longer stands for mukti; it now stands for MTV.
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